Guys & Dogs

by Elaine Fox

  “Oh, come on. It’s not so bad as all that,” he said, not meeting her eyes.

  “It wasn’t,” she said, feeling pity for him, even if he did make his own bed. “Until now.”

  She couldn’t shake the feeling of doom the little article produced in her.

  “Well, just you wait, missy,” he said, looking tough again. His faded blue eyes met hers and he poked a finger down onto the newspaper. “Those samples will come back and vindicate everyone. Your friend Georgia most of all.”

  She sighed. He was right; he had been helping her friend. And it hadn’t seemed that serious the other night, when she’d told them what to do and how to do it.

  “How did you avoid getting thrown in jail?” she asked.

  He grinned then. “Georgia was great. She made a big show of just wanting to see the puppies, said she was so sad to have lost her Gretyl, the dam, and knew Clifford would never let her hold one. They thought they’d caught us coming in for the first time, see. They didn’t know we’d already been there and were just returning the pup.”

  Megan shook her head. “Great, that’s just great, Dad. But what if Clifford decides to press charges? What if the results don’t come back in time?”

  He shook his head, dismissing the idea of failure. “They only take a couple weeks. And Georgia and I are going to see Clifford and his lawyer this morning, tell them what’s really going on. We had to wait a day so she could get her lawyer to come with us.” He patted her hand. “So don’t you worry about your old man, doll. There aren’t going to be any charges.”

  Megan mustered an unconvincing smile, but her concerns were not with her father at all. One of the amazing things she’d learned about him was that he always got out of trouble almost as easily as he got into it.

  No, what was bothering her was what this would do to business. Her business, now.

  Not to mention how unscrupulous by association this would make her look to Sutter. If he’d had any qualms about severing ties with her before, this would surely quiet them.

  “Did you see this?” Montgomery handed him a copy of the Fredericksburg Daily Times, and stepped back, her arms crossed over her chest. “It’s yesterday’s local paper.”

  Sutter scanned the short article she indicated.

  “That Georgia Darling is trouble,” he said, handing her back the paper. “I used to tell Bitsy the same thing.”

  He turned back to the computer, calling up a client email they’d just been talking about.

  “Isn’t that your Dr. Rose’s father?” Montgomery persisted.

  He didn’t glance up as he scrolled through his inbox. “My Dr. Rose?” he inquired mildly.

  “Yes, the one you had lunch with. The one who’s clearly after you.”

  Sutter turned back in his chair and looked at her a long moment. Montgomery’s eyes were defensive, her short haircut suddenly making her look more childish than tough, as it usually did. “After me, Montgomery? What are you getting at?”

  She sighed and rolled her eyes up. “Isn’t it obvious, sir? She’s in trouble. Her business is in trouble. This is going to do her in.” She tapped a short fingernail on the folded paper. “I just think you need to be on guard for the next thing she pulls.”

  “The next thing?” he asked coldly. “What was the last thing she pulled?”

  “That Tattler article, of course. The woman is diabolical.” Montgomery’s face reddened as Sutter laughed.

  “Diabolical? Oh come now, Montgomery.”

  At his laugh, Twister lifted her head from where she lay beneath his desk. Not sensing a walk, however, she lay back down.

  Sutter had begun bringing the dog to work because he liked that she made him get outside a couple times a day. Plus, she wasn’t such a wild thing when he got home, either.

  Mostly, however, he liked the company. For whatever reason, she made him feel calm.

  “I can’t believe you don’t see what she’s doing, sir,” Montgomery continued. “That woman is trying her damnedest to squeeze her way into your life. And she’s obviously desperate for money.”

  He sobered, concerned about Montgomery’s fervor on his behalf.

  “Montgomery, correct me if I’m wrong but you make it sound as if money is the only reason a woman might want to be in my life.” He tried to make the comment light, give her a chance to take a hint, but she didn’t take it.

  “You know I don’t mean that. I just know a woman with an agenda when I see one. And if that Tattler article didn’t convince you of that, I don’t know what will. But we’ll see. Mark my words, she’ll come up with something.”

  He gave Montgomery a hard look. “She’s a young woman. She’s not used to talking to reporters. If anything, I have been the one infringing on her life, not the other way around. Do you think even the Fredericksburg paper would have been interested in this little story if not for the Tattler’s bringing Megan Rose to everyone’s attention?”

  “This was a robbery,” Montgomery objected. “This is news. And she was involved!”

  He glanced at the article again. “No charges have been filed. And she was not involved. In fact, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Megan Rose. Only her father.”

  Montgomery’s lips went thin. After all their years of working together, she had to know it was pointless to argue with him.

  “I appreciate your watching out for me,” he said, his tone making the issue final. “But, believe me, I do not need protecting from Megan Rose, or anyone else. You can stop your worrying.”

  What he needed, he thought, was protection from himself. He was the one driving himself mad. Mad with desire for a woman he couldn’t have.

  “I’ll try, sir,” she said, her chin raised stubbornly. “But you don’t make it easy.”

  Sixteen

  “I can’t do it, Aunt Edna,” he said to the pajama’d woman sitting across from him. She was looking a bit wild-eyed today but she had asked him about Briana so he thought she might be more present than her afternoon dishabille suggested. “I can’t continue seeing her. For some reason everything she says has begun to annoy me. And her obsession with the media is threatening to make me a little barmy.”

  She leaned over and patted his knee with a crooked hand. “I think that’s wise, dear. You clearly need to keep seeing that other woman. Talking about her is the only time I see you happy.”

  “I doubt that’s going to happen either.” He slouched down in the chair like a kid. Being with Aunt Edna sometimes made him feel as if he were fifteen again, at her kitchen table, telling her about the girls he wanted to ask out and how none of them would go because he didn’t have a car, let alone a couple quid to take them out.

  He’d tried to engage her in conversation about herself today, asking about Uncle Ted, who’d died after Sutter had come to the States, but she only wanted to hear about him. And Briana. And Megan.

  Sutter realized with amusement that his life had become another soap opera for her to follow.

  “I don’t think she wants to be my friend.”

  “Why in the world not? You’re a delightful friend, Sutter.”

  He laughed cynically. “Perhaps to you. To her…well, it’s difficult when you can’t keep things…strictly friendly.”

  He thought his aunt would take this as a problem with arguing but a knowing gleam lit her eyes and she nodded. “I see. Well, that does create a problem. When one of you wants friendship and the other wants more.”

  He shook his head. “She doesn’t want more.”

  “I was talking about you. You want more, don’t you, Sutter?”

  He looked at his aunt, wheels turning in his head.

  “I thought you went after what you wanted,” she continued. “Isn’t that how you got to where you are today?”

  “You can’t go after someone who doesn’t want to be gone after,” he protested.

  “Let me tell you, young man, you can’t say you know a woman’s true feelings until you have gone after her. Have y
ou asked her about her feelings?”

  He remembered how she’d looked in the church basement, how certain she’d seemed that they were through. “I don’t know about that, Aunt. She’s made them pretty clear…”

  “What a woman says and what she does are sometimes quite different,” Aunt Edna said sagely. “Take that Brittany, for example.”

  Sutter felt a sinking in his gut. “Brittany?”

  “Yes, Brittany Snow. She told Lance she wanted nothing to do with him and now she’s mooning about, behaving like a right stroppy cow about his seeing Shannon. Of course we all know Shannon is using him, but still. Communication, Sutter! That’s what makes a good relationship.”

  Sutter wasn’t sure he should consider relationship advice based on a soap opera, even though she had a point.

  “And what does Lance make of all of this?” he asked, playing along.

  “Oh Lance.” His aunt threw out a hand as if throwing him into a wastebasket. “He’s as dense as they come. Doesn’t think Brittany loves him, believes everything Shannon says. I’ve half a mind to tell him what’s going on, but I’ve found it’s better if they just work these things out themselves.”

  “Quite,” Sutter said, nodding.

  “You can’t tell young people a thing these days,” she shook her head, her gray curls quivering with the movement.

  He smiled gently. “No, I don’t suppose you can…”

  “You could ruin me with this,” Sutter said, watching Briana’s motionless face. “You could take it to the tabloids and have me splashed across their pages for months. But you deserve the truth. The who, the what, the where…the only thing I can’t give you is the why. I don’t know why, Briana. It just…wasn’t working.”

  Her dark eyes were, as always, a mystery as they regarded him beneath aristocratically arched brows. “How much does this have to do with that little veterinarian you’ve been seeing?” she asked calmly.

  He’d dreaded this question for more than a week, since he’d spoken to his aunt. Briana had gone back to Massachusetts to settle some final business, so he had waited until she returned to speak with her. He just couldn’t go another day with her thinking their relationship might be going somewhere.

  “It has more to do with us, Briana. Surely you can see that we don’t want the same things.” He shifted on her delicate antique settee, trying not to think about how Megan’s emotions would be written across her face and in her eyes, only to come out of her mouth. She did not have an equivocal bone in her body. Her purpose burned bright as a wildfire within her, blown even brighter by hard winds.

  But Briana was different. He could not tell what she was thinking, or if she was in the least upset by his revelation.

  He was leaving in the morning for a business trip to New York, something he should have done last week, but he couldn’t leave without settling things with Briana.

  “But you are certain that you don’t love me.” Briana’s voice, smooth as silk, betrayed nothing. She was so placid he wondered if she might not be relieved.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “But I am certain.”

  She was silent a long moment, gazing at her hands.

  “I hardly think I could ruin you,” she said finally, lifting her eyes to his. She looked as if she were considering just how it might be done and was disappointed that it was not clearer. “Maybe your reputation could be marred, but only for a while. It’s not as if anything I had to say would affect your stock prices.”

  He frowned.

  “Regardless,” he said steadily, “I leave it in your hands to handle as you see fit. I am happy to play the cad. Either the one who erred, or the one who was left, whatever suits you.”

  Her eyes frosted over, regarding him coldly. “How kind.”

  There it was, he thought. She was angry. Not hurt, not heartbroken, not even humiliated. Just angry.

  “In any case,” he said, “you have always been better at handling the media, so I will leave you to it. I will not speak to the press.”

  She was quiet again. A clock ticked on the mantel, loud within the hollow shell of their relationship.

  Finally, she spoke, her voice quiet. “You do realize how this could make me look, don’t you, Sutter? If this is your final decision, you must be prepared for what I might do. How I might characterize this. Not to mention…certain players in the drama.”

  There it was. The threat.

  “It is my final decision. And I am sorry about it, Briana. I have no problem with your doing what you will to me,” he said, then added, his voice hardening, “but if you bring Megan Rose into this it will change everything.”

  Her back stiffened and her next words were thrown like rocks. “So it is the little tart. Well, I hope that works out for you because I do not take people back, Sutter. Not ever. If you ask me to forgive your indiscretion now, I will do so. After all, until recently we lived in separate cities. But if you persist in saying we should split, then this will be the end of it. Forever.”

  Sutter met her gaze. “I understand. But my feelings are decided.” Even if my future is not.

  “And so,” she said venomously, “are mine. I’ll be speaking to the press in the morning.”

  He stood up then. “Whatever you want. Just remember,” he leveled her with a look, “leave Megan out of this. I mean it.”

  Color hit her cheeks and her nostrils flared. “I can see that. So I’ll leave her out of it. She’s nothing to me anyway.” She gave an elegant shrug. “But you can’t blame me for what that tabloid might dig up on you.”

  He chuckled mirthlessly. “I’ll deal with them,” he said, and headed for the door. “Goodbye, Briana.”

  And then he was gone. Out the door, in the car, then on the chopper heading for National Airport, where his jet would take him to New York.

  He had a tabloid to buy.

  It had been twelve days since Megan had last seen Sutter, but the funk she’d fallen into made it feel like a year.

  As she’d feared, business had indeed slacked off since the tiny article in the local newspaper about her father’s “puppy poaching” had morphed into national news via the National Tattler. “Sutter’s Sweetie Daughter of Puppy Poacher!” the headline had read. It was, however, only a sidebar to the bigger story about Megan and Sutter’s clandestine meeting in the basement of a church. “Foley Frisky with Feline Physician in Church Basement—Ellis Upstairs!”

  Between the two, there was enough bad behavior to offend the citizens of Fredericksburg on every level. The steady growth of new clients had halted abruptly and a few people even called to cancel their appointments. She’d already had to let go two of the three receptionists and one of her vet techs. She was not looking forward to what would have to go next.

  Megan’s financial future looked bleak.

  Georgia had come back to the house to apologize to Megan, after she and Megan’s father had met with the lawyers. Clifford wasn’t going to press charges until after the tests had been received, she said, as if calling her bluff, but they both knew what those results would show. He was just jerking them around while he had the chance.

  Still, she hadn’t meant to injure Megan in the process and she was so abjectly sorry that Megan could do nothing but take pity on her and forgive her. Besides, Megan had participated a little bit. None of them had anticipated the article’s being picked up by the tabloid or the dire effect it would have on her business.

  But Georgia didn’t know the worst part of the circumstances and Megan wasn’t ready to tell her. She didn’t want anyone to know about the pregnancy yet, not until she’d figured out how to tell Sutter. Even then the fallout would probably be pretty ugly. Already struggling with the reputation of her father, and the Tattler’s subsequent article about Sutter and Megan’s tryst in a church basement, of all places, then dealing with the family name’s involvement in a dog theft, becoming an unwed mother by the town’s most celebrated citizen was going to seal her fate as the town’s most notorious. It didn�
��t take much imagination to realize there would be no recovering from that. If she thought she’d been snubbed at the chamber music concert, she hadn’t seen anything yet.

  But all of that was nothing compared to the total financial devastation she faced. With the costs of doctor bills and prenatal care—covered only partially by her catastrophic health insurance plan—the outlook for Megan’s finances recovering from this blow any time soon was grim.

  Apart from being robbed of current business, the income from which she could be using to sock away money for her maternity leave, she now had nobody to cover for her at the animal hospital after the baby was born. She couldn’t ask her father, not now. He’d sealed his retirement and made it permanent by participating in that ill-conceived plot with Georgia. Even after the results of the DNA tests were received and they were vindicated—if they were vindicated—she wasn’t sure people would ever trust him again. Not that many of them had to begin with.

  Granted, the baby’s birth was six months down the line. But six months of little to no income, followed by at least two more of downtime with the baby, and there was no way she could exist for the better part of a year on what she had now.

  Of course there was always Sutter. The moment she told him about the baby she knew he would cover the costs. If you could ignore the documentation of your every false step, unguarded word and stupid move by a national tabloid, there were perks to the father of your baby being a billionaire. When she was honest with herself, she conceded that knowing he would help was the only thing keeping her from coming completely apart at the seams.

  Because she knew she had to tell him. He had a right to know.

  But even though she felt sure he wouldn’t let her sink completely, she had hoped he would come around to seeing their potential as a couple first. Now she had to face facts: if he was going to come around he would have done it by now. The best she could hope for was that she and Sutter would be co-parents. And that Briana wouldn’t actively sabotage any civility in the relationship.

  One plus was now that she knew the cause of her fatigue—not to mention her overemotionality, overeating, and hypersensitivity to everything from smells to sights—she was at peace with it.